First Haircut!

Today, Lily had her very first haircut!  I was a little nervous because her moods are so unpredictable (I dread the teenage years!), but she did so good.  My good friend, Nikki, did it.  She acted a little nervous to start off with, but it was nothing a sucker didn't take care of.  She sat there patiently while Nikki trimmed up the ends all over, straightening up the back especially.  Before we knew it, she was all done.

Before:

During:

After:

 Nikki put a little braid in the side 

Not really much of a difference, but her ends look a lot better and it'll hopefully grow a little better now.  Also, the back is finally all one length and it doesn't look so scraggly.  I'm so glad that one of my good friends could share in one of Lily's first with me!

Catching Up

Wow..time flies.  It's hard to believe it's been nearly two months since I posted on here.  This is what's been going on in our little world

After some thought and prayer and the very gracious acceptance of the grandparents, we decided to take the kids out of daycare for the summer.  The main reason we decided to pursue this was because Chris was going without some checks this summer because of how the school system does his drivers ed pay.  Along with that, we both hated the fact that the kids are always so on the go and never really get a summer break.  After talking to my boss, I was able to work four 10 hour days so that I can stay home with the kids on Mondays.  Chris re-worked his drivers ed schedule so that he can have Fridays off with the kids.  Our parents agreed to keep the kids Tuesday - Thursday, taking turns every other week.  It has been a true blessing to us to have a little break from paying daycare and also a blessing to the kids that they've been able to get spoiled by their grandparents!

That leads me onto my next interesting story for the summer.  Luckily, we had this schedule worked out with the grandparents because all summer we've been at doctor's appointments for Chris.  Starting in October 2010, Chris woke up with what he thought was a kink in his neck.  It never went away and he started going to the Chiropractor.  By December 2010, right after Lily was born, he had started feeling better, so he quit going.  Then, in April 2012, he woke up with those same symptoms.  At the time, we had been reading, "The Hunger Games", so he really thought it was from looking down and reading too much.  He started feeling a little better after taking some Ibuprofen for a few days and started a new workout routine.  The pain flared up again after that first workout, so he quit.  Then, the pain starting getting worse, so he told me to make an appointment with a specialist after school was out.  I went ahead and scheduled it for the end of June.  When we went in June, the doctor told him he thought it was a herniated disc.  He put him on prednisone and scheduled an MRI.  When we went back to find out about the MRI, the doctor confirmed what he thought was wrong.  He told Chris that there were certain doctors who would go ahead and suggest surgery.  He gave us the option of doing an epidural injection, but suggested that we go ahead and schedule a consult with a surgeon in the same practice.  We went ahead with that suggestion.  The epidural injection did nothing for Chris.  The next week, we had the consult with the surgeon.  The surgeon told Chris that surgery was really the only option at this point.  He had 25-30% nerve damage already and he was losing muscle in his left arm by this point.  You know things are bad when he couldn't even hold a glass of tea in his left hand without shaking.

So, here we stand, almost one week after surgery.  They did a bone graph from Chris' hip, took out the ruptured disc and fused the hip bone to his C6/C7.  They covered the fusion with a titanium plate and unbelievably, his pre-surgery pain was gone as soon as surgery was over.  The surgery took about 3 hours and the surgeon said that Chris' rupture was pretty bad and had a lot of fragments.  The nerves were not reacting at the beginning of the surgery (hence his numbness in his left hand), but by the end of the surgery they were already responding.  The surgeon is hopeful that Chris will have full recovery and not have any permanent nerve damage.  The biggest hassle from the surgery has probably been wearing the hard neck brace.  He'll have to wear that for the next 3 months.

So, I believe that brings us up to speed. I'll try not to make the next post so far out!!

Random Thoughts

One of the good things about having kids is that they say the most random things.  My boys seem to talk constantly, whether it's questions or telling me about something that has happened in their day.  This past week, the boys have been full of funny stories.  I feel like if i don't write them down (this is basically their baby book), i'll forget them so here goes:

*Nixon asked Chris the other night if he knew that there was a man on the moon.  Chris said, "Yea, Neil Armstrong.  He travelled up to the moon, blah, blah, blah."  Nixon listened intently, but then at the end, he said, "No Daddy, I'm talking about the man on the moon who stays up there all the time and you wish to him".  Haha..it was priceless!

*After playing his game on Monday night, Landon said, "We beat that KC team. (Kansas City)"  i said, "Yea, I know buddy, you guys did good" to which he replied, "Yea, we beat them.  They beat us the first time, but we got a payback to them because we beat them this time.  We just kept hitting homeruns and they couldn't beat us!"  What confidence!

Lily - 18 Months

I can't believe my baby girl is 18 months already.  We went for her well check today and she's moving right on target with her measurements as follows:  weight - 23 lb, 9.6 oz (65%), length - 32.5" (70%) and head circumference - 46 cm (40%).  I also found out that all those shrieks and screams she does constantly are signs of social development in girls.  If that's the case, my girl is going to be a social butterfly!

At 18 months, Lily:

• Still sleeps around 11 hours at night.  She goes to sleep around 7:15 every night
• She has started being able to eat on her own finally without me or Chris freaking out :)
• She says the words Moma, Dada, Landon, Nixon, Lily, Night-Night, Bye, Love You, Thank you, Grammy, Papa, Nana, Poppy, More, Milk, and just about anything else you tell her to say.  She will get lazy though and the words start sounding the same
• She chases her brothers around and terrorizes them just as much as they do her
• Loves her "babies" more than ever.  She knows what drawer they're in and will pull them out once she figures out that I've put them up.  She never has less than four or five in her crib at night!
• Will throw a temper tantrum at the drop of a hat if she doesn't get her way!
• Has learned how to make all kinds of faces..fish face, kissy face, etc and it's the cutest thing ever!

Nixon-isms

Nixon has always been full of life from Day 1.  He was (and is) my trouble maker (although Lily is trying to win that title).  But, even when he's driving me to the brink of craziness, he will smile or say something so crazy, you can't help but love that little butterball.  That charisma is sure to get him in trouble (or his way) many times in the years to come.  Listed below are some "Nixon-isms"

• I don't need to wash my hands, I used "hanitizer" (hand sanitizer)
• "Clouds" - the stuffing that he feels the need to pull out of his pillow
• "I am Thorn!" (Thor)
• "When I get bigger, I'm gonna be in charge and nobody will tell me what to do!"
• "I love trees (broccoli)"
• He likes to wear his new "babing suit" (bathing suit)
• He doesn't want to get "hymnotized" (hypnotized)
• One day he'll meet his "true potential" (thanks go to Lego Ninjago for this one)
• He thanks you at night for turning the tv off because if not, "he just can't stop watching it"
• He says, "I'm too little to play baseball/basketball, but one day I'll get big and then I can play"
• He wants to move to the beach so that "he never has to go to school again"
• "I don't ever want to grow up or be a Daddy!"
• When referring to the male anatomy on his plastic cows, he says, "I know this one is a bull because he has these poinky things"
• "I like when you call me Butterbean, but don't do it in front of my friends"
• "I want to play with my Boxer men (wrestlers)"
• "Ooops, I burded" (burped)
• "When I grow up, I want to be a cup so I can know what the drink feels like"

I just love that little boy!

A Letter to My Hubby

Chris,
It's so hard for me to believe we've been together for 13 years!

Even harder to believe that we've been married for 9 of those!

We've accomplished so many things in those years.  Since we've been married, we've lived in 5 houses (buying 3 of those), had 3 wonderful kids, both started and finished Graduate School, bought 12 vehicles (okay, a little embarrased by that one!), lived in four different cities, had 11 jobs (you work a lot, only 3 of those are mine!), and had 3 dogs.  I know I don't always tell you, but I am thankful for all that you do.  You're a wonderful husband and father to our kids.  I couldn't ask for anyone better. 

I love that you tolerate all my crazy, OCD ways and even laugh at most of them.  I love that you aggravate the crap out of me when I'm in a bad mood and don't want to talk, but mostly I love you for loving me so much. 

You're the love of my life and I can't imagine riding this crazy ride of life without you by my side. 

Lily's "Babies"

When Landon was born, he wasn't really attached to anything.  He could take or leave the paci and he had no stuffed animals or blankets that he had to carry around.  He did have "Mr. Puppy" when he turned one and he was a little attached to that when he slept, but not during the day.

Nixon, on the other hand, still carries around a stuffed animal everywhere he goes.  He really doesn't have a favorite, but rather a variety that he chooses from every morning to take to school for that day's nap.  Even as a baby, he had a taggie blanket that he would chew on constantly.  One day at daycare, it got misplaced and for the three days that they looked for it, he didn't sleep a wink at night or during the day.

Lily has taken on the characteristics of Nixon.  She has a little doggie, "Dougie" that she has become attached to along with a taggie blanket in her crib.  This past weekend when she was sick, she had to have both with her constantly.  Now, not only does she want to sleep with those, she has found her drawer full of baby blankets and has dragged them out one-by-one every night this week.  She will not go to bed without every blanket she sees in her room.  Take a look:

That's not 1, not 2 but 5 "babies" (Nixon's term for any blanket or sleep animal).  Is that not the cutest thing you've ever seen??